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You don't need a license from the government if you're driving on private property with permission of the owner. It's just that private property owners have never banded together to build and maintain their own alternate set of highways. You need a license from the government to use their roads, because it's their roads - built and maintained by them on land they have acquired. You could campaign for a ballot initiative to eliminate the need for driver's licenses. Note, however, that whereas airlines don't own airports, the railroads do own their own property, and Amtrak has thrown the TSA off it in the past.

I could've sworn a local train that navigates a mountain pass had regenerative braking. I appear to be mistaken.

Dynamic Braking (wikipedia link if you prefer) dissipates all of the electricity generated as heat. These trains are clearly referenced as engaging the dynamic braking system during a braking scare in the 90s, and not a regenerative braking system. A 2004 paper obtained dynamic braking data for this train line.

For further evidence, I ran some informal youtube and google searches. There are no videos for "train regenerative braking", but a lot for "train dynamic braking". Google searches only turn up papers for "train regenerative braking", but "train dynamic braking" returns plenty of magazine articles and press releases .

Along with all the other benefits, model railroading is a fantastic way to meet chicks, even better than chess tournaments.

ShanghaiBill isn't kdding -- one of Model Railroader magazine Staff members was in the Jerry Springer episode "Bi-Curious Cheaters".

The best reporters learn as they go and become experts on new subjects, if given enough time. The wreck of train 188 turns out to have legs, that is, staying power. The story won’t go away. At this point I think the news organizations are doing a great job, and I salute them.

This headline is misleading. We don't yet know what caused the crash, so it's a leap to say PTC could have prevented it.

No, your comment is what is misleading. The FRA's emergency order is about Automatic Train Control (ATC), not Positive Train Control ("PTC"). The difference is explained in the final paragraph of the Trains magazine article linked to in the summary:

Automatic train control is a system that will slow or stop a train that is moving too fast for a given stretch of track between installed control points based on signals for the area.....Positive train control is the generic name for train control systems that would slow or stop a train that is moving too fast anywhere along a PTC-covered section of track based on computer-updated speed restrictions and conditions and in areas where train crews are performing maintenance./quote?

Freight hauling would be a great use-case for these ... no mandatory rest periods which means much more effective use of time getting from location to location. If larger roads had dedicated freight lanes where the effective speed limit could be lower, then the extra "drive time" could be used to conserve fuel and road damage by operating freight vehicles at something a bit lower than typical highway speed.

Hmm.. freight hauling... no rest periods... dedicated freight lanes... effective speed limit is lower.... I sense there may be something that already exists to meet these requirements.

And, for the record, I've never seen a TSA agent on an Amtrak train or at an Amtrak station. Not saying they don't show up, more as a muscle flexing exercise and trial balloon, but is is extremely unusual. Pretty hard to hijack a train and take down a sky scraper with it.

That is an interesting situation. The TSA outright took over the Amtrak station in Savannah, GA. Unlike airports, Amtrak has Police, not merely security people, but outright law-enforcement officials. They were seriously talking about arresting any TSA agents who showed up at train stations in the future. Alas, I believe the TSA managed to calm down the Amtrak Police, so to my knowledge no TSA agents were arrested.

http://www.gadling.com/2011/03/09/amtrak-police-chief-to-tsa-stay-off-our-property/
The TSA did try the train "Your papers ... " thing via Visible Intermodal Protection and Response.
US rail operators did talk about the searches ... after they saw what was been done on their station.
http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/p/188504/2059127.aspx

This is not a new problem for RR photographers, which are legion. http://www.trains.com/trn/default.aspx?c=a&id=3941

A few years ago, Union Pacific was going to go after model train companies. They wanted a licensing fee for using their logo, but according to Model Railroader Magazine, "Mike Wolf, president and owner of MTH Electric Trains, has negotiated a new royalty-free licensing deal."

Yeah...isn't that the whole concept behind the Dynamic Braking Systems in most, if not all, modern deisel locomotives?
A quick search on Google resulted in the following article from Trains magazine:
http://www.trains.com/Content/Dynamic/Articles/000 /000/003/079uwrak.asp

They bascially state that modern Dynamic Braking, where the locomotive's traction motors are set as a generator, slows the train. The resulting electrical current is simply disposed of as heat via banks of resistors.
However, the article mentions that in its predecessor, Regenerative Braking, the electrical current developed by one train's braking was applied toward another train's accelleration.

Sounds like prior art to me, but I didn't RTFA to see how specific the patent was.

Well, here's an example (I read this after I posted that comment):

http://www.trains.com/Content/Dynamic/Articles/000 /000/006/002znhif.asp

That site requires registration, so here's an excerpt:

"...Nassau County residents are vigorously voicing concerns about the proposed construction of a third track along the Main Line of the MTA Long Island Rail Road."

"But in a series of public meetings this month in Mineola, Floral Park, and Hicksville, hundreds of residents raised objections, citing the possibility that the railroad would have to acquire land through eminent domain and that local businesses would be disrupted. In response, several state senators threatened late last week to withhold support for the capital program..."

And this is just adding a third track to a place that already has two! NIMBYs will be a problem no matter what we try to do.

At no time does the Empire Builder exceed 100mph. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) speed limits are as follows:

The track from Chicago to St. Paul is either class 4 or 5.

A brief history

It is a choice of government subsidy or no rail service.

-R (random illuminated sig.)

I'm just barely old enough (okay, I'm old) to have missed LEGO's for the most part. I got to play with Erector Sets! Now those were Real Toys (TM). We were too poor to buy the one with the motor, but I got the one just below it for Christmas. Started out building the stuff in the pictures in the instruction book, but ended up making spinning fan-like objects that could cut fingers in a flash. Oh, and guns, of course...

OMG, it looks like it's coming back!

This page brings back memories... oh yeah...

www.trains.com
Will this help?

The Road goes ever on and on,
Down from the door where it began.